LETTER: Israel is a good ally

Editor,

I am writing in response to Vito Russo’s column on double standards. Anyone who knows foreign policy knows that countries act in their own self-interest.

The United States has little interest in U.N. resolutions concerning Israel at present. The only reason the United States has an interest with U.N. resolutions concerning Iraq is that the resolutions reinforce our own conclusions and interests. Israel is quite unlikely to unleash its military force against the United States or its allies.

On the contrary, Iraq is almost certain to. To call this a double standard is to call the United Nations the government of the United States.

Mr. Russo should note that the Jewish lobby in the United States that has supported Israel comes from the same stock as the Zionists originating in the pogroms of Eastern Europe. Were it not for immigration limits, many more of the Zionists would have come to the United States and perhaps Israel would not be an issue right now. Guilt lies on both sides in the conflict, but the fact still remains that until one side is driven out, or the rising generation changes, the motivations of the past conflict will remain.

Jeremy Parker